This 1993 performance is admirably conducted by the veteran Gianandrea Gavazzeni,
who has since joined the immortals in a loftier sphere. But it is a refreshment to
watch and hear how idiomatically he directs a score that should be far more familiar
here. Giordano obviously liked political turmoil. The Andrea Chénier
of two years previously is embroiled in the midst of the French Revolution, and now
we have a moment in Russian history when, to quote Madame de Stael, 'despotism was
mitigated by strangulation' (more strictly a couple of bombs). At the Scala in 1993
there was no need to implicate the director in the bloodbath. Giordano's wishes were
admirably followed, and Radiotelevisione Italiana can congratulate itself on a memorable experience.